The Gorgoneia

I just realized I didn't make an intro post to my blog so here it is!

Name: Novaline, Noa for short.

Religion: Hellenic Polytheism... If you couldn't tell by 5 seconds of scrolling on my page lol

Pronouns: She/he however I prefer masculine terms like "sir" instead of "ma'am", or like "bro" and "dude" to refer to me

Gender: demigender

Also I'm bisexual, I'm only mentioning this because I may occasionally make a post about it, however I usually use this blog for my religion

"you're faking it for attention" except my only social media account dedicated to my religion is Tumblr and I don't have many followers and can go weeks without posting at a time

I was looking at this cute statue to get for Aphrodite because I really want one for my worship of her, I always look at the reviews before buying something just in case and one of the reviews was complaining about the "cherub" that doesn't fit the statue because cherub's are Christian and Aphrodite is a Greek goddess

If you don't know what a cherub is, it's a baby looking thing with wings in the bible and has a bow and arrow

...brother...that's Eros in the statue...that's not a cherub 😭

One of the Delphic Maxims (63) can literally be translated into despise a slanderer (translation varies)

I WILL ABSOLUTELY BE DESPISING ANYONE WHO SLANDERS ME, MY FRIENDS, OR ANY KIND PERSON

After Midnight by Chappell Roan - Dionysus

I'll Make a Man Out of You - Ares

I believe that the myths are given to us by the muses, they inspired the poets to write about myths to help teach people about the gods. Only, humans like to exaggerate things, and can oftentimes repeat stories in a biased way. This way, the story becomes different than what was originally intended.

Humans love exaggerating details. Like when I fell on my nose as a kid I still tell the story saying I "broke my nose" even though that's not actually what happened.

Herbal tea is great for ouranic and kthonic gods

Ouranic gods like burnt offerings because of the smell drifting up to the sky, with this same logic, hot steaming tea still has the smell drifting up towards the sky

And herbal teas are usually safe to pour into the ground so it's a good libation as well

I just love offering teas. There are so many flavors to offer, and different ways to prepare it too.

Try it plain! Try a splash of milk or a drizzle of honey! Try steeping it in milk instead of water! Try flavors related to the gods! Mix and match flavors to make your own!

Small rant.

Please can we not introduce people by their religion. I thought this was common sense, but one of my friends introduced me as their "Hellenic friend" to someone and I felt so put on the spot. It's different if you introduce someone saying "oh they have the same religion as you" but that's not what this was.

It's the same reason why you wouldn't introduce someone as your "Jewish friend" to a random group of people. You're singling us out. It makes us feel like you see us as our religion instead of who we are as a person.

It's in a similar realm as introducing someone as your "black friend" or "Asian friend". See how icky that sounds? How put on the spot that would feel? Just introduce people by name like a normal person.

A lot of us, for reasons, have to practice in secret. Whether it's because you're staying with your parents or because you share a dorm room, here are some tricks that I myself use:

Honestly everything comes down to how good you can lie or act. If you're able to, convince your family that you're just very interested in Greek mythology and that's it. Percy Jackson, Epic the Musical, the Illiad and Odyssey, anything that you can watch or read related to the Greek gods will help you sell it as "no I just really like Greek mythology". And once you sell it like that you can get a bunch of statues and be like "no it's just because I really like mythology 🥺".

This general tactic works well with anything, slowly introduce the idea of you like essential oils or incense and frame it as just liking smells or something.

But more specifically, here are some ideas for alters and shrines:

On your bedside table: everyone keeps random clutter on their bedside table so it's the perfect place, no one will think anything of it if there's "random" candles or trinkets lying on it.

In a drawer: you don't have to keep everything in the same place, it's ok to lights incense somewhere else because you don't want to start a fire.

On top of a dresser: this is another one where people leave random clutter all the time so no one will think anything of it if there's "random" dishes or something

Outside: for libations which you pour into the ground, you can just find a spot behind your house or even a specific spot at a park.

Offerings:

Tea: this is one of my favorites because there are so many types of tea that you can prepare for different gods, and no one will think anything if you leave a cup of tea sitting for a bit

Milk: same with the tea, really you just need to sell yourself as having a bad memory lately. Depends on how strict the place you're in is though

Frankincense: if you live in a religious house this is perfect, frankincense was a gift from the wise men. It also was a very common offering in ancient Greece. This one doesn't work if you're in a dorm or apartment that doesn't allow smoke, however you can always just bring it outside and wait for it to go out in it's own depending on the weather and how much time you have

Anything smelly like perfumes and essential oils can be used as an offering really

If you have a jar that isn't see-through that is also a great way to get away with offerings. Maybe a clay container with a lid or something.

"I only really like men who look or act like girls"

"if sexuality was a choice I would choose to be lesbian"

"well I think big boobs distract everyone"

I'm making a webpage to help beginner helpols do research when they're first starting does anyone have any recommendations on what to put?

So far for websites to learn about myths or gods I will be linking Theoi and Mythopedia. For YouTube I will be linking Fel the Blithe

The idea is basically I will link different websites or sources or whatever, include a description of what kind of information it offers, how easy it hard it is to understand or if you will need any background knowledge going into it, and anything to keep in mind while researching with it. It's purpose will be to help beginner helpols figure out where to start and make research more accessible by providing different forms of research for different learning types

I'm also linking a PDF of a free translation of Hesiod's Theongy and I'm gonna see if I can find a free Oddesy and Illiad translation PDF

I will also include links to online beginner helpols guide PDFs

If anyone has any ideas for things I should link or would like to boost my project by helping spread my post I would very much appreciate it

Please note that I am looking for something that is either a primary source or something that lists it's sources for the information so that I can make sure it's more accurate

please don't judge the background I haven't put it on the alter yet because I have to wait like 2 weeks for the scent to set in or whatever (idk I'm new to candle making)

I made this candle for Zeus and I wanted to share the symbolism for each thing.

Did a rose scent with rose petals on top because rose can be associated with royalty and there are even many roses named after royal figures, and since Zeus is the King of gods he is associated with royalty to. I had that same thing in mind when I made the wax purple, purple has historical been associated with royalty, and it's also a color associated with Zeus because of that

The Yellow tin was because I didn't have a purple one and because yellow is associated with lightning which Zeus is associated with.